(Well, almost on the ides thing. It would have been so perfect…) Ubi’s UK forum manager has posted the release date for the PC version of the critic-pleasing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. He says that the game “will be released on March 17th [NA and certain EMEA countries] and the 18th of March for [UK].”

But will we like it? And what kind of DRM will it feature? I’ve dropped Ubi a line to get an answer to that second question. The first question we’ll answer ourselves next month. Fuss-explaining trailer below.

I really liked AC2 and while I have a stable connection Ubi’s DRM actually synced my save games incorrectly and made me lose 3 hours of progress. So yeah, depending on that factor I’ll either buy it at launch or wait for it to drop to $10.

Played it on the PS3, and can heartily recommend it. Singleplayer is a further refined version of AC2, with some (sort of lackluster but addictive anyway) ownership mechanics and a system for training recruits for a “bunch of dudes jump out of a bush and wail on my target” button that never gets old. Desmond is as boring a character as ever, but playing him was worth it to get to parkour around a present-day town a little. Don’t get fanatical about trying to get 100% completion on each mission (given for fulfilling mission-specific objections like “only use this weapon” or “don’t be seen”) since you don’t get a reward for getting above 70-something% anyway, and you’ll have a damn good time.

The multiplayer is truly fantastic. It’s not entirely a new idea, but it’s never been done with such a large budget and attention to detail. No game multiplayer mode has held my interest since BF2142 – and that just because I liked squishing people with drop pods – but this I played for something like 50+ hours. The glory of standing motionless in a crowd as your target strolls by, himself trying to look inconspicuous, and having him not even notice your lightning-fast poison stab, only to take five or six steps and drop, confused and frustrated, to the ground… Dammit, now I need to go hook up the PS3 again.

I’m with you, normally console ports suck balls. But the AC series is one of the few exceptions. The PC controls feel fluid and work nicely.

Watching that promo vid, I’m reminded that 5 years ago, that would have only been possible as a high-end cutscene out of engine. Today, that is entirely in-engine and exactly how the game is played. I love PC gaming.

There are too many other games coming out in the coming weeks that get much stronger readings on my personal hype-o-meter. Homefront and Shogun 2 for example, and wasn’t Brink coming out next month as well?

Thanks, it didn’t help that most of the first 30 minutes was tutorial and walking around a laboratory being introduced to characters. After finishing Alpha Protocol I need a new game I can kick back with a gamepad and play, this might fit the bill.

I enjoyed it. There are opportunities to use stealth for assassination (get good at roof-leap kills, and use of the poison blade), and some interesting distraction mechanics where you can sometimes avoid combat completely, if it’s not an assassination mission.

You have to role-play it though, because Ezio is such a bad-ass fighter, especially when upgraded with skills and weapons later in the game. From about the halfway point onwards, you can just go in with blades flashing and do fine, so you have to intentionally choose to try and do it stealthy. And that can be a lot of fun. There are some situations though, that force melee combat regardless of what you do. It’s still a good game for the stealth content, I think. It’s not like we have many choices in this genre.

AC2 wasn’t my cup of tea. It was still repeating the same actions over and over again for the majority of the game.

And no, there isn’t any stealth in the game, but to be fair there isn’t meant to be. Don’t mistake acrobatics for stealth. I suppose it is possible to add some yourself, but just like the first one the easiest way to play the game is to chop up everyone that moves. Once you have learned how to counter the only challenge in the game is when they add it in artificially, e.g. you fail the mission if X occurs.

You have to role-play it though, because Ezio is such a bad-ass fighter, especially when upgraded with skills and weapons later in the game. From about the halfway point onwards, you can just go in with blades flashing and do fine, so you have to intentionally choose to try and do it stealthy. And that can be a lot of fun. There are some situations though, that force melee combat regardless of what you do. It’s still a good game for the stealth content, I think. It’s not like we have many choices in this genre.

This doesn’t sound too bad to me. I really liked how stealth was handled in Alpha Protocol. Once you skilled up the stealth tree and had decent stealth armor it was fairly easy to sneak around. Also, if you were caught it wasn’t a game over situation; you could simply fight your way through the level until you got to a point where you could deactivate the alarm. Not as tense as Thief but a fun way to kick back and relax.

I have been waiting for a while for this to come out of PC. I love the 2nd one haha The only thing i don’t really get is, is this the next game on the series? or is this more like an expansion of the 2nd one? i don’t get it, some people talk about they are excited about AC3, but i thought this was it, what’s the deal?

It’s basically somewhere inbetween the two. It’s certainly a full game in terms of length, and it probably improves on AC2 gameplay-wise, but only refining and focusing; it’s fundamentally the same sort of thing, apart from one new gameplay mechanic (other assassin’s that you can summon to take people out/help you in a fight, although there’s a whole metagame system built round them). The biggest sense in which it’s not AC3 is that it continues Ezio’s story rather than moving to a new time period (it does move things forward a bit with Desmond though, rather than leaving him in the lurch).

If it lacks the ridiculous always online DRM which genuinely means I can’t play the games that use it during term time when I’m living at Uni halls atm (the internet connection is shit here… and that’s when it’s even up) I might buy it on launch, if not I’ll wait until they drop it and then for the game to go on sale on steam for a ridiculously low price because fk giving a company who punish me for not pirating their games a decent profit.

My internet connection currently sucks as Virgin media have oversubscribed my area again. I can’t play online games so any game that requires a constant internet connection simply won’t work for me, even if i did compromise my principles and buy it, which I won’t.

Virgin did the same to me. I phoned them up and complained, they refunded my phone costs, gave me the previous and following month for free and fixed my connection issues incredibly quickly. I was really quite shocked I must say.

I may end up betraying the PC and getting this one for the X-Box because:
1) It’s older and therefore cheaper on the xbox
2) I think these kinds of games are best played with a gamepad and I don’t own one for my PC. Also, the lack of PC gamepad means that if I wanted to play the pc version on my TV, I’d have to play with my head turned 90 degrees left.
Good to see it finally being released on PC tho.

I recently purchased an Hd TV. I tried out a few of my 360 games on it and have now settled on playing games through it with my PC. I just couldn’t stand how pixelated everything was on the Xbox. High Def console my arse!

I was quite surprised my 4-5 year old PC could so easily out do the Xbox at such high resolutions, but there you go.

Yea, was going to say just “hook” it up to the PC. If you have a wired controller you just connect it since it is standard USB.
If Wireless you get one of those controller receivers.
Most modern/recent games should support the 360 controller immediately “plug’n play” (usually applicable to multiplatform games both on 360/PC. I mean they are both Microsoft products afterall, cross compatibility/support). You can even use programs like gameprofiler or xpadder etc. to custom setup your controller for those 360 controller unsupported games.

Sadly I have to say go with the xbox, the 360 gamepad support in AC2 was atrocious. The default button mapping was all wrong and even once you sorted it out you still couldn’t map anything to the triggers because the game decided since they were analog they must be joysticks.

Personally, I think you’re better off spending £18 on a spare wired 360 controller that works with the PC, than you are £15 on the receiver for your existing wireless pad. Unless you really need a wireless connection to the computer, that extra pad can turn out to be handy – between it, my SFIV pad and the second wireless pad that came with my 360 bundle, I’ve got enough for 4-player 360 games now.

Yea there is definitely better support for Wired controllers (even for Games for Windows Live games such as Dead Rising 2 that doesnt work for the wireless without a hack) but wired controllers are problematic when your sitting in front of your tv 5 meters from your PC.

Yeah, I’m aware of the wireless receivers but haven’t bought one, since they’ve always seemed a bit too expensive. Now I’ve found a relatively cheap wireless controller+receiver bundle (from dealextreme if anyone’s interested) so I might just get that sorted out since I need a spare/replacement controller anyway.

I already played this on the Playstation of 3 consoletoy. Since I already had Asscreed 1 and 2 there anyway.

If you liked 2, Brotherhood is more of the same goodness in a new single massive area, with some nice little diversions in the Leonardo missions.

Multiplayer is pretty interesting for a while, certainly when people are playing it right.
Less so when all the players are running around like painfully obvious spazzes.

I was worried with the multiplayer, that Brotherhood was going to feel like little more than tacked on DLC or something, but the singleplayer stands up very well on its own, and is completely relevant to the story, ending in another god damned cliff hanger >:/

I guess the only reason its not called Asscreed 3 is because its still Ezio’s story.

I’ve enjoyed the PS3 version so much that I couldn’t care less about the DRM (especially as AC2’s DRM never posed a significant problem to me even on a poor internet connection), so I’ll be pre-ordering this early next month to get the DE content.

I have mixed feelings about people saying ‘fuck it, I can deal with the DRM’. I realise that those of us that have the option are privileged as someone mentioned further up that halls of residence suck balls at the Internet. I went to an art college and we couldn’t look up ‘Nude Descending a Staircase’ in the library, let alone the halls. But if we disagree with the DRM and still buy the product “If we don’t take action now, we’ll settle for nothing later”. Is it perhaps best to write to Ubisoft contesting their DRM and buy the game? Seemingly hypocritical but actively fostering PC gaming while opposing the DRM in the most effective way. Two good acts becoming hypocritical is certainly odd ground to be on.

I’m enjoying Assassin’s Creed 2 so much currently on the PC that I am going to be getting this game without a shadow of doubt. I am just as certain that I can’t afford the massive barrage of games being released at this time, so some of them are going to take a back seat. So while I will be buying it, lets assume it’ll be after a price drop of some sort as I’m already betrothed to Dawn of War 3: Return of the Unguates.

Finally, is that trailer a fan-made piece? The directing was pretty innovative if a little clumsily handled and the song was typically fitting as I’d discovered towards the end of an odd Jude Law film, Repo Men, in a scene of similar bloodshed, reminiscent in itself of the corridor scene from Old Boy. And if you want a cinematic trailer for this particular game, look no further than here. Ooh I love birds!

Assassin’s Creed 2 was one of those games that I hate to hate. I really wanted it to be good, and every time I watch someone play it, I feel like I’m missing out on one of the best games of the last years.
Still, it’s a cumbersome affair. The controls are flowbreakingly finicky, the A.I. is spirit-crushing in its inanity and unpredictability and combat is just annoying. The only things keeping the game together are the superb storytelling and the rich environment.

It’s sad really, for every once in a while, it really shows promise, but it lacks more than a bit polish: It’s okay for a sandbox game if its parts lack a little polish (GTA IV shows that when your scope is large enough, just-good-enough is more than a-okay), but Assassin’s Creed 2 doesn’t do anything it does really well. So I’m not holding my breath for Brotherhood.